Financial
1. Pay off our credit cards by the end of April. I know, I sound like a broken record on this one. First card will be paid off in January, leaving about $2500 on the second card. It will take three payments of $800+, but I think we can do it. I want to see zero balances across the board!
2. Increase our payment toward our mortgage principal from $25 to $50. This should be easily achievable once our CC debt is gone. That will free up about $600-$800 monthly. Even if we never raise our extra payment again, that $50 extra per month for the remaining time on the mortgage will shave off 3 years and $28,000 in interest payments. Imagine what $75 or $100 would do to it…
3. Get into the stock market. Nothing crazy, but I’d like to own a few shares of a company and obsess over the price and dividends. Yep, gotta be something that pays dividends — which I’d likely reinvest.
4. Increase my yearly wage. I could take on more freelance work to do this. Nights, weekends, free days, whatever. I’ve been working side jobs for 12 years now, I’m pretty used to it. So this is doable.
5. Pitch magazines. This is something I’d been kicking around for more than a year. Time to buck up and do it. Maybe I’m afraid of rejection, but what is there to lose? At best, I could get great clips.
Personal
1. Lose 5 pounds. I really, really overdid it this time at the holidays. Too many cookies, and my pants are fitting more snugly than I’d like. Pants size is single-digit, so I can’t complain too much. But I refuse to buy bigger pants.
2. Eat more healthily. I’ve come a long way since the days when I wouldn’t touch any type of vegetable, and I like fruit, but it’s not the first thing I reach for when I want a snack (Read: snack = chocolate). I need to change that.
3. Work on being more fashionable. It’s easy for me to slip into jeans, a sweater and boots every day, but I need to liven up my wardrobe a bit. May check out Goodwill or the Salvation Army for cheap finds.
4. Meet new people and network. Everyone’s circle of friends expands and contracts over the years. But I’d like to network with other writers and editors.
Pretty blasé, huh? That’s okay, because I can be a pretty blasé person! But I’m working on it.
